TitleNews Online Archive

TitleNews Online Archive

Web locks in 43% of population

August 21, 2002

Nationwide Internet use reaches record high, e-commerce gains ground

Inman News Features

The number of Internet users nationwide reached a record high of 122 million users last month with 43 percent of the population logging on to the Internet in July, according to a Morgan Stanley report.

AOL logged the highest number of users at 98 million, Microsoft sites came in second with 90 million users and Yahoo! rounded out the top three with 83 million users, according to the report. The three companies all experienced a growth in Internet traffic in July compared with the same month last year, with increases of 27 percent, 41 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

July online retail visitors logged an increase of 33 percent and reached a record high of 94 million, according to the report, which stated that e-commerce "appears to be becoming increasingly mainstream."

Morgan Stanley said that it expects international Internet users and usage growth to be stronger than U.S. growth and that it stands by its earlier projection of a global growth rate of approximately 20 percent.